Awarding XP in Lost Mine of Phandelver

[DK1138]

G'day,

Forgive me if this is covered elsewhere I did quickly search for it here on the forums. Like many I am currently running Lost Mine of Phandelver and I have been awarding the players XP as they complete each and every encounter (I'm new to DMing and know there's many schools of thought on this but I feel it gives players a sense of progression as they go and it's so simple to do in FG) We are about to reach the end of part 1 and in that it mentioned a story milestone of a certain amount of XP should be rewarded at this point, roughly around what they have already been awarded, would this be instead of having done it as I went? If there is further info in the Players Handbook or DM Guide please just point me to the correct page and I can look it up myself, I have the core books as well as the starter set in hard copies.

Thanks in advance!

[Trenloe]

This is in addition to any XP gained from encounters.

If FG this is available as a "Quest" that you can add to the XP tab of the party sheet to help you assign the XP (read any instructions in the quest entry as it may need adjusting based off the number of players, etc.). https://fantasygroundsunity.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/FGU/pages/819336/5E+Party+Sheet#XP-Tab

See "Story Award One" in the Quests data list as an example.

[DK1138]

Thank you! I’m finding the community here incredibly helpful!

[Ecks]

In the first chapter of Lost Mines of Phandelver, XP is handled slightly differently in that it has explicit instructions on how much XP to award per player.

After the "Goblin Trail" encounter, you're instructed to award each player 75 XP, which includes XP for defeating the goblins on the road and finding the hideout. So you should not award any encounter XP for these goblins - instead award the quest "Story Award One" (which is set for 4 players, so you may need to adjust).

After clearing out Cragmaw Hideout, you're instructed to award each player 275 XP. This is the quest titled "Story Award Two". You don't award XP for any individual encounters in the cave.

Of course, you could award encounter XP instead of the quests, it's up to you. But for the first chapter you shouldn't award both. I would just make sure they have at least 350 XP each after clearing out Cragmaw Hideout.

For the remainder of the adventure, you award encounter XP and any applicable quests, as instructed by the adventure (see the "Awarding Experience Points" section in each story entry for details).

[DK1138]

Thank you very much for this information, I saw that note about the XP being awarded differently in part three and thought 'well that's how I've been doing it in part one!' as all of the encounters in FG of course have XP attached to them. I'll make sure the XP I've awarded them is similar (I think the entire point is that they level up at the end of part one) so as long as that is the case I am all set. Cheers!